Wrong Place, Right Time
by ConiferousSiblings
Summary: Yet another one that I had originally posted on my tumblr... this one involves the Reverse Pines AU (I take no credit for inventing that AU, someone else made it up - I'm just playing with their toys). Like my previous 2 stories this one is also gonna get kinda Pinecesty (Mabel x Dipper). If that offends you, please avoid this story :)
1. Chapter 1

"Are you _sure _you know which way you're going?" Mabel asked her brother as they trudged deeper through the winding paths between the trees, her eyes noting the lengthening shadows around them as evening was giving away to night.

"Mabel, I've been exploring these woods for four years and we have a good map and compass with us – I am _positive_ I know which way I'm going." Dipper replied somewhat defensively. _Deeper into the woods, that's where we're going, _he thought and felt slightly guilty about the half truth he'd told her.

"Well all right then Ranger Pines, lead on I guess." Mabel said cheerfully as she adjusted her pack and increased her pace till they were walking side by side, her eyes looking over and noticing that that it was already too dark out for Dipper's high-and-mighty compass to be of much use right now anyway.

Okay, so maybe Dipper didn't know _exactly _which part of the woods they were in, but the area looked sort of familiar and he was guessing by the glimpses of the mountains around them that he could see whenever they encountered a gap in the tree line that they were getting closer to the site of the anomaly that they'd come out to investigate. Well, that _he'd _come out to investigate anyway… Dipper was pretty sure that Mabel had just wanted to tag along because she thought that a camping trip would be fun. In the years since Dipper had first started coming to Gravity Falls for the summer with his sister the two of them had seen far more than their share of strangeness in these woods, but the rumors and stories that he'd been hearing about the forest ever since the night of that freak meteor shower were very different from any gnome encounter or random maraca owl attack. The forest itself had become the mystery, with even the most reliable of Gravity Falls colorful residents mentioning things like strange lights, patches of extreme heat or cold & whole stretches of woods where they later found that they had spent hours when they felt like only minutes or even seconds had passed. In spite of all the magic and weirdness that the teenage boy had seen, Dipper still considered himself to be a rational person at heart and was certain that there had to be something here, some identifiable source for all the recent weirdness in the forest and he'd taken it upon himself to discover exactly what it was… and to test his theory that it might have had something to do with the meteor shower that had come without warning across the night sky almost a week ago. Those strange meteors that seemed to flicker through the air in green and gold and violet, unlike any fallen star that Dipper had ever seen before.

_Really hoping for a UFO this time, _Dipper thought as he stopped walking in order to get his bearings, glancing around for familiar landmarks or the marks that he'd taken it upon himself to carve into certain trees a few years back in case he ever found himself truly lost. Finding nothing familiar, and growing apprehensive at the speed at which the darkness was overtaking them, Dipper decided that it would probably best to start setting up camp now and continue the search tomorrow.

"Ok, this looks like a good place for the campsite," Dipper declared once they had come upon a small clearing in the forest and was relieved when Mabel hadn't offered any objections to the idea.

The both of them were too tired from the evenings hike as it was, and they were mostly silent as they started setting up the two-person tent that Dipper had been lugging along on his back during the afternoon. As they worked Dipper could feel himself just grow _slightly _tense whenever he and his sister had to move in close to one another to get the frame together or stretch the sheeting across it but he squashed it down as he'd been doing for the past few weeks.

_We're just out on a camping trip, the fact that we're sharing a tent isn't a big deal. We used to share a room, so its pretty much the same thing, _Dipper told himself as he left Mabel to finish setting up the tent so he could get the fire started. _Any _weirdness _that I might be feeling is just… hormones or something. It's going to pass. Hanging out with her more like this will be more useful in the long run for getting over it than avoiding her, _he told himself but in the back of his mind he knew that it wasn't really a convincing argument.

The real reason was that he _couldn't_ bring himself to stay away from her anymore, and not just because of how wounded she looked when he had tried to shuffle past her silently in the shack when they were working or avoid her by spending most of his free time at the town library or alone in the woods. She wasn't just his sister… she was his friend, his companion on most of the weird (and occasionally dangerous) adventures that he'd had. More than that though, she was the only person who REALLY got him, the person that he knew would always have his back no matter how bad it got.

_I don't know many girls… maybe its natural that I started to feel this way since she's the one I'm closest to, _he thought while he set a careful circle of stones and dirt around the pile of tinder that he'd collected to get the fire going. He rejected the hopeful thought with a shake of his head. _As if there's _anything _natural in what I'm feeling, _he thought fiercely. _As if she'd forgive me if she knew some of the things I'd thought… of some of the dreams that I'd had. _

Dipper shook the harsh thoughts from his mind and focused on getting the fire going with the flint and steel that he'd packed. They had taken plenty of matches with them, but something about getting the fire going the old fashioned way always gave Dipper some comfort – made him feel confident and capable. It took a few minutes and he swore slightly under his breath when he nicked his thumb on the edge of the steel file that he was using to generate the sparks but when he saw the first faint curls of smoke spiraling up from the dry leaves and slim twigs he felt a wide grin settle on his face.

_Hard part's over, _Dipper thought as he fed the tiny flame with small branches and handfuls of dry grass, enjoying the scent of woodsmoke and the sound of it crackling gently along with the soft breeze blowing through the trees, _now I just have to keep it going._

"Sweet! Fires almost primed up for marshmallows!" Mabel said with a bright smile as she emerged from inside of the now fully completed tent, a package of the sweet treats in one hand and some bamboo skewers in the other.

Dipper glanced up from the fire and caught sight of her face outlined in the flickering orange and gold light, still feeling a bit of surprise at seeing the white and even smile since her braces had only been removed a few months ago. Most people, if asked, would call Mabel 'cute' rather than 'beautiful' – her round face, rosy cheeks, large eyes, button nose and her wide mouth with its easy grin didn't really fit into the ideal of the supermodel with the high cheekbones and proud but delicate features. Dipper wasn't one of those people, and he found himself trying not to stare at the way the gentle light of the fire seemed to add a glow to the silky lengths of chestnut hair framing her face. To him she was beautiful- the word gorgeous sprang to his mind, though he quickly squashed the thought without a flicker on his face to reveal the emotions he felt welling up when he saw her there.

Mabel made her way over to him and handed him a skewer with a marshmallow already pre-impaled on it and then sat down beside him before she held out her own stick over the fire, turning it slowly. The night was getting to the chilly stage, even though it was the middle of summer and while the fire was providing a bit of heat Dipper still heard Mabel shiver slightly when a gust of wind blew down from over the trees. Before Dipper could raise any sort of objection Mabel had scooted in closer to him and slipped an arm under his jacket and around his torso and slid her other one alongside his down a sleeve.

"What the heck Mabel?" Dipper asked as his voice, to his annoyance, cracked slightly in surprise.

"It's freezing out here and you have the jacket – don't be so greedy, share the wealth." she said in a playful tone as she poked him gently in the ribs with her free hand.

"You can take the whole jacket if its that cold to you." Dipper said, the hairs on the back of his hands raising slightly in the chill air. _It probably won't be too comfortable for me… though maybe more comfortable than this situation._

"Nah, this is better. This way we both get the heat." Mabel said as she wriggled and managed to get half her torso into the jacket while Dipper squirmed uncomfortably next to her before she nonchalantly turned her attention back to her marshmallow as if nothing was odd about the situation.

_Maybe this isn't weird for Mabel, _Dipper thought, _I mean, not even I can figure out what she's thinking sometimes. Maybe trying to become siamese twins in my jacket is a totally natural idea for her?_

Dipper turned to look off at the stars that were starting to peek out above the trees and tried to get his head clear and back on the purpose of the trip. Hopefully in the light of day he'd have a better chance to find the spots where the unusual activity had been taking place but directions had been sketchy at best. When he'd started his investigation he had made a rough map of the woods and gotten the townsfolk that he'd questioned to point out their best guess of the spot where they had thought their experiences had taken place was, and he had one or two clusters that looked like the most promising places to search. When Mabel had come upon him hunched over the dinner table in the Mystery Shack messing with the map it had taken him a half an hour to convince her that he hadn't stumbled on a secret pirate treasure, but to his surprise she'd seemed just as interested in the stories he'd told her about the mysterious events in the forest. She had declared that she would be coming along on the expedition and Dipper had been so surprised by her enthusiasm that he'd temporarily forgotten the _uncomfortable _situation that his feelings had put him in and agreed to the idea. She'd even dusted off the old camcorder left in the attic that they had stayed in as kids and decided that it was time to restart his old video series (though she wanted to rename it to "Mabel and Dippers Guide to the Unexplained", which he hadn't objected to).

"Bro, your marshmallow is pretty much charcoal." Mabel said as she nudged him out of his thoughts and he turned to see that the sugary treat had dissolved into a mess of ash and scalding hot goop.

"That's okay, I didn't really feel like one right now anyway." Dipper said with a chuckle as he tossed the charred skewer into the heart of the fire.

"You sure about that? I brought all the fixings for smores – c'mon, I know you can't resist them!" Mabel said as she produced the packets of somewhat crumbled graham crackers and slightly melted chocolate bars from _somewhere _on her person.

_How does she always manage to hide stuff like that? _Dipper wondered. _Its not like she even has a sweater on right now to stuff them into._

"I don't know if I'm in a smores kind of mood." Dipper replied, though he felt his stomach grumble at the thought of the treat that she was messily assembling, heedless of the smears of chocolate that she was leaving on his/their jacket.

"Suit yourself," she said in a somewhat muffled voice with her mouth full.

"Actually, I think I'm going to turn in already… the hike really took it out of me." Dipper said as he awkwardly struggled his way out of his jacket and left it draped around Mabel's slim shoulders.

"Boo! We haven't even gotten to tell ghost stories yet." Mabel said with a pout.

"Mabel, we've seen actual ghosts. Real live, in a sense, ghosts. Whats the point?" Dipper asked in a dry voice.

"Fun is the point you dork. C'mon, when was the last time that we went camping? Or that we got to really hang out like this? You've been acting all moody and awkward for a while now." Mabel said.

"Not sure what you're talking about," Dipper said more quickly than he should have, "I've been normal."

"If you say so bro bro. You sure nothings up though? C'mon, this is Mabel here – you know you've got my ears anytime you need to talk."

"I've just been focused on this whole weird forest mystery thing. It's gotten me kind of distracted," Dipper lied with a small smile and he felt a small stab of guilt at the small smile she offered in return.

"Sometimes I think you're way too into this stuff," Mabel joked, "but at least it gets you out of the house. I guess if you aren't going to keep me company out here then I'll turn in too."

The twins doused the fire and took turns getting into their sleeping wear in the tent while the other waited outside impatiently in the rapidly chilling air, and then they both slipped into their heavy sleeping bags under the cover of the tent, hearing its thin fiberglass poles creak in the growing wind.

Though it was almost pitch black Dipper could still see the faint outline of Mabel snuggled into her sleeping bag, her chest rising and falling easily in time with her surprisingly loud snores. They hadn't really slept this close to one another in a few years and Dipper felt a pang of nostalgia for their nights spent up in the attic of the Mystery Shack when they had first come up to the Falls. The hours they spent playing attic mini-golf or other games with one another long into the small hours of the night. He turned away from her and lay flat on his back, his eyes tracing the faint outline of the moon against the slick fabric of the tent roof and counted slowly backwards from a hundred to try and will himself to sleep.

_I hope I don't dream of her again tonight, _Dipper thought fuzzily as he began to drift off around the count of 50. _I want to be a good brother again… not a freak. _

–

Dipper had woken long before Mabel had managed to crawl out of her sleeping bag and was already eager to get a move on to continue the search for the anomalies that had lately taken hold over the forest but he knew from experience that it would be at least an hour before Mabel was feeling up for any sort of movement. Of course once she got going she was pretty much an endless fountain of energy and could out-pace him in no time, but when it came to mornings she was pretty much dead to the world.

It hadn't taken long for the two of them to strike their camp, working almost silently as they re-packed the tent and gathered up their supplies in sync with one another. _Maybe there is something to that whole twin-thought-sharing thing, _Dipper thought idly as they went about the complex business of disassembling the tent without a word and he briefly felt a chill run through him at the idea if it meant that Mabel could glimpse some of his more shameful thoughts. _No worries though, psychic powers are fake as far as I know – Gideon couldn't manage anything unless he had that amulet or his creepy spy-camera network. We just work well together is all… plus its only a tent, not rocket science._

They made good speed as they trudged deeper into the forest through the morning and into the early afternoon, and now that the daylight was at full strength Dipper felt his confidence in his map return when he was more easily able to match up his surroundings with it. He felt his heart pound with excitement when he took a few quick readings from the compass and realized that last nights wandering path had actually brought them far closer to one of the clusters of sightings than he'd first thought.

_Okay, now to see whether this is an _actual _mystery, or just the people in town being crazier than usual._

The twins moved at a slower pace now at Dippers urging, his eyes peeled for anything strange in the claustrophobic maze of the trees around them. Maybe it was just his imagination, but the atmosphere here seemed subtly different from where the they had been hiking earlier in the day. He couldn't really say why though – the birds were singing just as loudly, the sun was no less bright in the sky & the leaves under his feet still crunched and kicked up puffs of healthy earthy-smelling dust with each step. To all of his senses there wasn't anything out of the ordinary here, but he couldn't shake the feeling niggling away in the back of his mind that something here was out of place and it was making him nervous. He nearly jumped out of his skin when he felt a tugging at his sleeve, but when he turned he saw that it was only Mabel. She'd moved up beside him and taken his arm in her hand and he could see her forehead creased slightly in apprehension and her wide brown eyes moving slowly through the trees.

_She feels it too. Its not just me being crazy, _Dipper thought and he didn't know whether to be relieved or even more worried at the idea.

"You doing okay Mabes?" Dipper asked her gently, and he felt her tight grip on his arm slacken slightly.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Just got a kind of… I dunno, spooky feeling here for some reason." Mabel replied, her voice shaking slightly but growing stronger with each word.

"Maybe its haunted by ghost squirrels or something?" Dipper joked lamely, trying to put her at ease and he was rewarded by the way she snorted and rolled her eyes at him.

"Or maybe its the vengeful spirits of all those trees that Manly Dan cut down?" Mabel speculated, her face losing its expression of worry and her back straightening with confidence once again. Dipper noticed though that she hadn't completely let go of his arm, and when he moved it to take her hand in his reassuringly she gave it an affectionate squeeze in return.

"Do you think trees can leave ghosts?" Dipper asked, and he found himself having a few private half serious thoughts about the question. _I mean, ghosts are real… so what are the requirements for ghost… ness? Ghostdom? Whats the right word for it?_

"Oh definitely," Mabel said breezily as if she were the authority on these matters, "and they are _incredibly_ dangerous. You know the old saying 'when a tree falls in the forest there's no one around to hear you scream'."

"I'm pretty sure no one has said that ever, and not just because it doesn't make any sense at all grammatically." Dipper replied.

He was about to crack a small joke of his own in response when he took his next step and felt a wave of bone chilling cold sweep through him from head to toe, as if his blood had been replaced with ice-water. Dipper let out a small yelp of surprise but the feeling had passed in an instant and when he turned he saw Mabel turning to him with concern in her face.

"Are you okay? Did you step on a thorn or something?" she asked, glancing around at their feet for any dangerous plants.

"What? No… I just felt REALLY cold there for a second. You didn't feel that?" he asked in surprise.

"No, not a thing. Your hand still feels the same too." Mabel replied, giving it a reassuring squeeze of her own.

"Weird. Might be nothing then." Dipper said skeptically.

"Brain tumor for sure," Mabel said darkly, "totally explains the recent crazy pants behavior of yours."

"Shut up," Dipper said with a too-loud laugh and gave his sister a gentle shove that sent her stumbling a step.

"Oh, you wanna go bro? Think you got what it takes to go toe to toe with the Alpha Twin?" Mabel said in her ridiculous pro-wrestler impersonation, her arms thrown wide in an exaggerated fighting pose.

"Mabel, I've got like 4 inches and 30 pounds on you – you wouldn't win this one." Dipper said wryly as he crossed his arms nonchalantly just to get under her skin a bit.

"Your moms got 30 pounds on you- boom!" Mabel said with a triumphant laugh.

"We have the same… you know what, I'll just let that one stand." Dipper replied with a roll of his eyes. "C'mon, we gotta keep searching… I have a feeling we're getting pretty close to where we need to be."

"Alright, but I get a free shove first – gotta keep the score nice and even." Mabel said, her arms crossed but her expression playful.

"Sure sure… sorry for shoving you in the first place though." Dipper said.

"I forgive you Dipper," Mabel said with sincerity as she began to take a few steps back, "Now stand perfectly still – I'm going to get a bit of windup on this one."

_Oh this is going to sting a bit, _Dipper thought as he saw Mabel walking backward through woods with her eyes on him, occasionally scuffing the earth with one shoe like a cartoon bull getting ready to charge.

"Sure you haven't gone far enough?" Dipper had to practically yell across the small clearing when Mabel had retreated quite a distance from him.

"Just one more ste-" Mabel began before she suddenly ceased to exist.

Dipper blinked. The clearing looked just like it had before, but where his sister had been just a second ago there was nothing. Panic suddenly overtook him and without a second thought Dipper charged at full speed toward the patch of ground that he'd last seen her before she had vanished.

_Please be okay please be okay please be okay, _Dippers thoughts pounded in his head, his heart slamming in his chest violently and his breath short in his lungs from the fear that had him in its grip. As he drew closer he saw something subtle, a shimmer in the air like heat coming off a road on a boiling summer day and with his next step everything around him _changed._

Dipper felt his body in a way that he never had before – the expansion and contraction of the heart in his chest, the way the muscles in his legs stretched and pulled across his bones… he was _aware _of it all. The wind and birdsong were gone, replaced by a roaring in his ears that Dipper knew, _knew _was the sound of his own pulse. Time had slowed and his movements were so terribly heavy, as if he were walking through deep water with steel shoes on his feet. Despite the hyper-awareness that had come over him, allowing him to even feel the individual hairs on his skin, his normally keen vision was blurry… murky… no, that wasn't right. It was more like all the colors around him were wrong somehow… alternating between too bright or too dark without any sort of pattern. He noticed, with growing alarm, that the branches in the trees seemed to grow, shrink, disappear seemingly at random before his eyes. With each step he took through the shifting kaleidescope that the forest had transformed into he felt his thoughts sparking wildly in his mind as it tried to take in _everything, _and it was too much. Much too much. The deeper he pushed himself through the hellish blur he felt himself grow dizzy- weaker, but he forced on. He had to find her. His head turned, _so _slowly that he thought it took an age but his eye caught sight of something solid – a patch of color that didn't blur or distort like the trees around him and with a surge of relief like he had never experienced in his life he saw Mabel. He gritted his teeth and forced himself to move through the heaviness, and though the _weight _of the air around him was like molten lead he drew closer to her step by torturous step. As he felt his vision flicker and dim and his breathing grow short he forced himself to make a dive and felt his body swim clumsily through the THICK air and felt her in his arms as he grabbed her tight, warm and real against his chest before he sent them crashing to the ground and he lost consciousness.

–

"Dipper? Hey… wake up! C'mon bro… get up!" a slightly panicked voice said, cutting like a knife through the silence.

_Mabel? _Dipper thought fuzzily as he felt the darkness slide slowly out of his head.

With a groan the teen opened his eyes and winced at the feel of the light stabbing into them. He saw Mabel bending low over him, her hand on his forehead as if he had a fever or something and a look of extreme concern on her face.

"What the heck man? One second I'm here ready to give you the pounce of a lifetime and then you suddenly charge at me like a crazy man and tackle me before you black out?" Mabel asked.

"What? You disappeared!" Dipper said as he propped himself up and shook the ringing pain from his head.

"Um, no – I'm right here… You okay Dipper? Been acting a little cray-cray there for a bit." Mabel said with growing concern in her voice as she helped him struggle to his feet and brushed a few leaves off the back of his jacket.

_What is she talking about? Did I just… was that real? Is THIS the anomaly that everyone was talking about? Or am I just… hell. _

"Maybe we should cut the expedition short," Dipper said shakily as he took a few calming breaths to stifle the panic that he felt growing in the pit of his stomach, "I'm just not feeling great right now."

"That might be a good idea." Mabel said, her face lined with worry at seeing the expression on her brothers face and she impulsively pulled him in tight for a hug, her face pressed against his chest.

"Sorry for… tackling you." Dipper said as he slowly raised his own arms and wrapped them around her in return, his mind racing with the _vivid _sensations that he had just experienced… and the way that feeling her pressed this close against him was making his heart race against his will.

"Sorry for the brain tumor crack." Mabel said. "That wasn't cool."

"Forget about it, I wasn't mad." Dipper replied. _Could that be the explanation? The reason that I'm seeing these things… feeling this way… acting like this? Is there something physically wrong with me?_

"Lets get out of of here. You remember how to get back to the car?" Mabel asked.

"Sure, but its going to be a long walk." Dipper replied.

"Lead on then oh compass master, I want out of these creepy woods already." Mabel said with a shiver and a glance around the glade. Her brow quirked up slightly as she took a second glance around.

"What is it?" Dipper said, noticing her confusion.

"I dunno. Something seems off I guess." Mabel said slowly.

"Probably just stressed out. C'mon, lets get moving." Dipper said with a brisk confidence that he didn't feel at all, hefting his pack high on his shoulders and putting a friendly arm around his sisters neck. Mabel shook her head and nodded, following along beside him as he backtracked his way through the trail that he had marked down on the map.

–

It took longer than Dipper had expected.

Hours had passed as they trudged through the woods, with the early afternoon giving away to dusk as they trudged on through the winding forest trail. Dipper had to stop frequently and take readings from the compass and he just felt his confusion grow when things just didn't match up right. The trees themselves even seemed strange, which was odd because Dipper had never really paid much attention to them before – but they just seemed off somehow when he looked at them. They had stopped for a quick lunch of trail mix and bottled water, but neither of them wanted to settle in and build a fire for a hot meal – they had silently agreed with looks that they wanted _out _of the forest before night fell again.

Even more time passed and when Dipper had just about given up and resigned himself to another night in the woods, panic setting in at the thought of being _really _lost, he saw the fence that marked the entrance to the parking lot of the campgrounds in the distance and with a whoop of joy the twins took the last leg of the trip in a run. Their joy quickly turned sour when they reached the rough dirt parking area and found that Grunkle Stan's beat up old car which they had borrowed was nowhere in sight.

"What the heck!" Mabel shouted furiously to no-one in particular as she kicked the dirt in the empty space where they had left the car the afternoon before.

"Who would steal the Stanmobile? It's worth, like $900 dollars if he could find someone dumb enough to buy it in the first place." Dipper said in surprise.

"Oh when I find who did this they are going to pay!" Mabel said with a glint in her eye and she drew her old grappling hook out from her backpack and hefted it menacingly.

"You're going to take them rock climbing?" Dipper asked jokingly, though his smile froze when she turned to glare at him and he gave a nervous cough.

"What do we do now?" Mabel asked with a slump to her shoulders, the gun drooping limply at her side as she scuffed her shoes in the dirt.

"I guess we'll have to walk the rest of the way back to town till we can get to a pay phone. Or at least till we get somewhere that we get good cell reception anyway." Dipper said as he drew a battered old cell phone from his pocket and saw that it had the "Out of Service Area" icon blinking in red in the corner.

"Ugh this sucks." Mabel groaned.

"Yeah, not the best situation we've been in, I'll agree… but not even close to the worst we've been in before." Dipper said, trying to be as reassuring as possible though he also felt a crushing disappointment at the thought of an even longer hike ahead of them.

"Dipper, just bury me right here where the car was – then my ghost can haunt the thief for all eternity." Mabel said as she slumped to the ground and lay down with a pout on her face.

"I'm really not sure thats how hauntings work. C'mon, its not that bad – we have the road to follow now so we won't be lost anymore… and um… I'll buy you pancakes when we get into town." Dipper said as a last ditch effort to try and bring some cheer back to his despairing sibling.

"With butter and syrup?" Mabel asked from the floor, raising her head slightly to look him in the eye.

"As much as you can handle." Dipper replied, holding out his hand to help her to her feet. She took it without a moments hesitation and popped up to her feet as quick as a rabbit.

"Well what are we waiting for then, Christmas? To pancakes!" Mabel shouted, squeezing his hand in hers firmly and dragging him down the road after her.

_She's really not going to be happy when she finds out that I didn't bring my wallet on a camping trip. _Dipper thought to himself.

–

They arrived at Greasy's Diner about a half hour later, footsore from the hike but in much greater spirits than they had been in ever since the incident in the glade that afternoon. The crowd was thin inside and while Mabel went to go get them a booth Dipper made his way over to the counter and rang the small bell that the cook kept there to let the waitresses know that a customer had arrived and the familiar form of Lazy Susan came out from behind the back with a small frown on her normally cheerful face.

"Kitchens already off for the night, we're going to be closing in a half hour." she said in a somewhat grumpy tone.

"C'mon Susan, give us a break here – someone took the car and we've been stuck hiking all day and we'd kill for some food right now." Dipper pleaded, and he noticed the look on her face shifted when her good eye swiveled over and caught sight of his face.

"Mr. Pines! I didn't recognize you with that hat on." she stammered, her odd staccato laugh bubbling out nervously from her lips.

"What?" Dipper asked, confused. _She's only ever seen me in a hat… but this is Susan, she's always been a bit screwy._

"Not that I don't think that you're distinctive looking… um… handsome even!" she said with a wide grin, and Dipper was puzzled by the nervousness that seemed etched in the lines of her round face.

"Um… thank you?" Dipper began and then twitched his finger to ask her to lean in closer, which she did slowly with a wary look on her face as he whispered quietly, "Look, I don't have any money on me right now but I promised Mabel pancakes… I know you guys don't really do tabs here but I'd _really_ appreciate it if we could just get the food right now and I could pay you back first thing tomorrow morning. Would that be okay?"

"That would be just fine Mr. Pines… heck, don't worry about paying at all! We're always happy to help you guys out." Lazy Susan said with another burst of laughter, and Dippers eyes widened slightly at seeing the sweat beading on her makeup caked forehead.

"C'mon, you don't need to do that. We can pay, no need for handouts." Dipper said with what he hoped was a reassuring smile.

"Of course! I'd never imply… I mean… Sure… I guess you can pay us tomorrow then." Susan said, that wide grin returning once again.

"Are you feeling okay Susan? Not feeling sick or anything?" he asked.

"Not at all – just go take your seat and we'll bring your food out to you two lickety split!" she replied quickly, backing up through the swinging doors and into the kitchen.

_That was bizarre, _Dipper thought as he made his way back to the table and saw Mabel sitting in the booth kicking her legs cheerfully and using her teeth to tear into a small plastic package of candies. _Must of got those from the vending machine – we finished off her last candy reserves this afternoon._

"What you got there sis?" Dipper asked, his stomach growling loudly enough to add the unnecessary _'and can I have some of it?' _that he was silently thinking to the question.

"Some weird knockoff candy – check it out." she replied, tossing the package over to him underhanded so that he caught it easily.

He glanced at the package thinking it was the same blue packaging as her favorite Gummy Koalas, but when he turned it over he saw the label said Gummy Bears. _Who ever heard of Gummy Bears?_

"Weird." Dipper agreed, and he was suddenly aware of the fact that the atmosphere in the restaurant had changed since they had first walked in through the door. The occupied tables had quieted down from their usual boisterous conversations to whispers and when he turned his head to look around the diner he found people avoided his gaze, glancing away quickly.

"You think they got if from the same place that Grunkle Stan always gets that loser candy for Summerween? The whole machine is full of junk like that. Gummy Bears, some cookie called an Oreo instead of a Yummy-O. No Pitt Cola either, just some dumb looking knockoff called Dr. Pepper. Who wants to drink pepper flavored soda?" Mabel asked idly as she leaned back against the padded booth chair and propped her legs up on his side to stretch.

"Not me, thats for sure." Dipper agreed, tossing the package of candies lightly on the table and taking a similar pose, happy at least for the chance to relieve his aching feet. "Food should be here in a few minutes though, so no point in ruining our appetite now."

"C'mon Dip, you know I got a whole separate stomach for candy." Mabel said as she snatched up the candy package and tore it open with a triumphant noise. Someone dropped a fork and it echoed loudly in the restaurant in the sudden silence that had fallen over the restaurant in the wake of Mabel's exclamation, and after a moment of eerie quiet Dipper felt his spine tingle when he heard someone else's false, too-loud laughter.

_What the hell is going on here? _Dipper thought.

Before he could devote much more thought to the question he was distracted by the sudden arrival of Lazy Susan bearing a plate heaped high with pancakes and a dish of butter balanced precariously on the edge of the tray.

"Enjoy you two!" Susan said, beaming with exaggerated cheer before she dashed back to the kitchen before Dipper could thank her.

The rumbling of Dippers stomach was a more powerful motivator than questions about the current oddness and he and Mabel dived messily into the stack, dividing it quickly between them before they started greedily stuffing the hot food into their mouths, barely pausing to chew.

It only hit him after his fourth pancake, something that had been bugging him in the back of his mind which only now came to his attention.

_Susan's good eye… its the left one, not the right. What… what's going on?_

–

Though they were well within the city limits now Dippers cell phone still had no reception, and neither did Mabel's. When they had tried to call the shack on the diners phone they got an error message – the wrong number signal rather than no one picking up. Dipper was feeling increasingly unsettled as they made their way deeper into town, deciding that they would just have to go the rest of the way on foot. Mabel had absorbed some of her brothers mood and was unusually silent while Dipper found himself taking in the sight of the town in confusion.

Something was deeply _wrong _here. The main street of the town was still familiar looking, but it was the details that just didn't fit. Shops that Dipper had never really paid any attention to looked wrong to him in ways that he couldn't quite put his finger one. The lettering on the windows, the colors of the signs. _Wasn't it _Richards Hardware _and not _Richardsons Hardware_? I've never been inside… maybe I'm just remembering it wrong… but I know for sure the grocery store had a green and white awning, not a blue and white… but its just an awning, they could change that. What is going ON here?_

The twins turned a corner and Dipper caught sight of something, a sign, and he froze in his tracks taking Mabel's hand in his and squeezing it tight. She jerked to a halt and turned to him with worry on her face.

"Whats wrong bro?" she asked, concern deep in her voice.

"Mabel… have things been feeling off to you today?" he asked slowly.

"Well yeah, but its been kind of a sucky day with the stolen car and the getting lost." she replied.

"More than that though… I mean, doesn't the town look weird to you?" he said, an almost pleading note in his voice.

"Kind of… maybe. What's it matter? I'm just tired, thats all." she said.

"I think… I think earlier in the glade when I blacked out… I don't think this is Gravity Falls." Dipper said slowly.

"O…kay. You got an explanation for that bucket of crazy? Cause I'm pretty sure we're walking down Northwest Drive right now with a bunch of Lazy Susans famous pancakes in our tums, so it sure feels like Gravity Falls to me." Mabel said skeptically.

"I think it is _a _Gravity Falls, but I don't think its _our _Gravity Falls." Dipper began, his jittering mind racing to get his thoughts in order as he tried to put them into words, "I think earlier before I blacked out… when you disappeared… I think we might be in some other place. Like an alternate universe, or another dimension or something."

"Oh, well that sounds a lot less crazy." Mabel said jokingly.

"It's the only thing that fits… the way that everything is just sort of different around town… Susan's eye… the way we got lost, as though we couldn't find our old trail." Dipper said quickly.

"Okay you can't blame the last one on your parallel universe theory, you'd get lost all the time even with a map and compass." Mabel teased.

"I'm being serious here!" Dipper practically shouted, and Mabel cringed slightly at the sudden intensity of it.

"Why? What makes it all fit? So everyone's being weird – it's Lazy Susan, she's _always _weird. Where's the evidence?" she shouted back, her own repressed nervousness bursting out.

Dipper pointed silently down the dimly lit street and Mabel followed his gesture to the end of the street and she took in the sight in a stunned silence of her own.

It was a familiar looking building, but the unfamiliar sign over the white marble arch over the doorway said "Stanford Pines Memorial Library", and nearby was a large lighted billboard and on that billboard was _her… _but not her.

The sign was advertising shows at the Mystery Manor – magic, the secrets of the future and more: all for the low price of admission… and plastered across its surface was a picture of Mabel and Dipper in costumes that seemed a strange cross between Las Vegas magician and flamboyant country singer. "Home of the world famous Mystery Twins!" the sign proclaimed in bold letters of teal and gold beneath the smirking faces of the Pines twins who were _not_ the Pines twins.

"Where the hell are we?" Mabel whispered as she squeezed Dippers hand tightly in her own, her grip almost painful on his fingers.

"I don't know." Dipper whispered back.

"How do we get back?" Mabel asked quietly.

"I don't know." Dipper said, just as quietly. "but I want to figure it out fast."

–

_Elsewhere_

The fire that burned in the imposing fireplace of the manors library flared suddenly and set off green and teal sparks that began to flitter through the drafts of hot air, briefly seeming to take on the forms of small butterflies. Dipper glanced up from his place at the mahogany table and frowned in minor annoyance when one of the animated cinders wound its way lazily toward him and perched on the edge of the map that he was surveying, causing it to smoke and curl before he licked his thumb and crushed it flat with a small hiss.

"I take it by the exuberant display that you were successful, dear sister?" he called out into the darkness of the hallway and his straining ears noted the click of heels walking down the wide hardwood floors leading from the foyer to his private study.

"Of course," Mabel replied with a note of archness in her voice, as if she were annoyed at the possibility that she _could _fail at any task. "He didn't put up much of a fight, and sadly most of his work went up in the 'accidental electrical fire' that also claimed his life."

Dipper smiled at the sight of his sister in the firelight, knowing full well that she had kept the colors of the flame altered to her signature aquamarine shades to show her at her best advantage. She knew how good she looked, and whats more she knew that _he _knew, but it was all part of the game that they had kept up between one another for the past few years and he found it charming.

"The job might have gone faster if you'd come along to help of course. He tried to run, and its so tiresome to try and chase them down in these shoes." she said as she idly picked at her flawless nails in a practiced casual gesture.

"I knew you could handle it," Dipper replied smoothly, knowing that she could switch gears from calm to enraged with very little warning and he wanted to stay on her good side for the night… he still had work to do after all, "besides, you know you've always been better at the more physical aspects of using our little baubles than I."

"True." she said with a grin, and he noticed with minor surprise that there seemed to be genuine pleasure in it at having received the compliment… and he felt pleased at seeing it there.

Though the two of them wore many masks, even around one another, Dipper knew that at his core there was still something warm there… something that he felt for no one else. A sympathy, an understanding… a love that he knew he was incapable of feeling for anyone else around him. When they had first received their matching amulets and had started using them they had found their minds linked and the feelings that he had been burying inside… feelings that had given even his normally callous self shame… were all laid bare, and to his wonder and delight he had found similar stirrings inside her own mind. From that moment on they had become even more inseparable than ever… this secret added to the secret of the amulets, and to their harrowing experiences mastering the powers they held which had driven them closer together while pushing the rest of the world further from their minds.

"What are you studying there brother dear? Some nerd thing?" Mabel teased, walking up behind him and leaning against his back and Dipper tensed up slightly at the feel of her small breasts pressed up against him through the thin fabric of his shirt. He could smell smoke on the sleeves of her tight blue jacket as she wrapped her arms around his shoulders, and it was also evident in the tresses of silky hair that tumbled down against his face when she leaned over him mingling with the scent of her floral shampoo.

_She does love to use flames… they match her personality so well. _Dipper thought to himself, glad that his own amulet was tucked up in a box in his room so that she couldn't glimpse the idle thought and use it as provocation for one of her minor rages.

"Its actually quite fascinating," Dipper said as he tried to bring his mind back to the matter of the map and off the feel of her warmth pressing against him, "I've been tracking a few odd events that have cropped up since the night of the meteor shower that occurred last week."

"Odd in what way?" she asked, running her hands idly across his chest and nuzzling his neck slightly, and he felt a small shudder pass through him. He'd learned from experience that she tended to get… excited… by the use of her powers- particularly when she'd used them as aggressively as she must have tonight. He didn't begrudge her her fun, though he probably would have tried to be more discreet when it came to the matter dealing with that fussy little journalist… what was his name again? Tobey something? Not that it mattered now anyway, the man had ceased to be an issue and his snooping around them would no longer disturb their free time.

"Just disturbances. Anomalies with time and perception. I've been reading up on some of the more esoteric books in the library and think that the lights in the sky may indicate some sort of weakening in the fabric of space and time, a rent in the aether perhaps?" Dipper said, bringing his own hand up from the desk to idly stroke the back of her hand as it ran over his chest. She'd worked a few of the buttons loose while he was distracted, or perhaps used her amulet to part them – though such subtle manipulations were more his forte, since she preferred to use her power more like a hammer than a scalpel.

"Anything worth taking a closer look at?" she asked as she gave up on subtlety entirely and brought her mouth down to his ear, her hot breath causing him to shudder as she nibbled against his earlobe gently and slipped her hands lower down his torso, toying with the buckle on his belt.

"Nothing that can't wait till morning." he said firmly before turning to cup her face in his hands and bring her lips to his in a hard kiss.


	2. Chapter 2

Dipper woke from his fitful sleep, his eyes sore and his back aching from the night spent tucked in a makeshift campsite the twins had set up in the woods just on the outskirts of town. He thought of the cliché that always seemed to happen in movies where a hero who was faced with an unbelievable situation would wake the next morning thinking it was all a dream, but Dipper was denied even that fleeting relief. This wasn't a dream, couldn't be – no matter how much he wished it was. He knew that his situation was wrong… terribly wrong, and the stress of not knowing _where _he and his sister were despite the familiarity of their surroundings, or how they would ever find their way back to their home had kept him up half the night. When he had found himself finally starting to drift off to sleep the night before he had heard Mabel sniffling to herself in the darkness. The sound of her stifled sobs wrenched his heart and he'd reached across the space between them and pulled her to him in a tight embrace. They had lain together for the rest of the night – taking comfort in the only familiar things in this strange new world, but they had stayed silent, and though Dipper felt his heart race uncomfortably at the feel of her so close and the scent of her hair in his nose he hadn't tried to pull away… he knew that she needed him to be strong right now and that mattered more to him than any amount of discomfort.

Mabel was still dozing quietly and Dipper saw that she even had the smallest of smiles on her face when he'd managed to gently slide his arms out from around her without disturbing her too much. He paused for a moment to admire the gentle curve of her lips before shaking himself guiltily and then reached into his pocket to pull out the flyer she had found last night when they had tried to find a place to set up camp. It was another advertisement for the 'Mystery Manor', similar to the garish billboard that had set Dippers mind reeling the night before, but with a different picture and a little more information, including the address. _Same location that the Mystery Shack is in _our_ world._ He stared fixedly at the eerily unfamiliar faces that smiled at him from the glossy and slightly faded page – the features were the same… eyes, nose, ears, mouth… his double even had his much hated birthmark, but while Dipper covered it with his hair and a cap _this _Other Dipper wore his hair slicked back and left his forehead bare for the world to see, almost as if he were proud of it. _Who knows… maybe he is?_ Identical though they were in base appearance, there was just something about the expressions of this worlds Pines twins that had set the teens skin to crawling. Their wide showbiz smiles didn't seem to reach their eyes, which looked especially flat and cold in the dim morning light filtering in through the flap in the tent. The expression seemed particularly alien on the strangely dressed Mabel who beamed at him from the page with a mouth full of startlingly white teeth framed by blood red lips, her eyes narrow and almost predatory beneath arched brows and smoky eyeshadow.

_I didn't think it was even _possible _for Mabel to look so… creepy. _Dipper thought with a frown as he compared the sight of the girl smirking coyly from the poster clutched in his hand to his own sister who was turning in her sleep and mumbling softly to herself, her hand reaching out to rub the warm spot that Dipper had left when he had risen up a few moments ago.

His thoughts were interrupted when his stomach growled loudly and he looked over to the pair of backpacks stuffed tight into the corner of the tent that held the sum of his and Mabel's worldly possessions in this unfamiliar place. _I hadn't expected that we'd be out camping for long before we started… maybe a night or two at most… Not a lot of food packed, especially if we have to split it between the two of us. No money… and thats considering that they might not even use the same money in this world anyway. Unless we're willing to go dumpster diving or shoplifting at the grocery store we have a pretty hard time limit on how long we can stay here before things get desperate. We should try to avoid staying long in town as much as possible too… it might not be a good idea to alert the _Other _Dipper and Mabel that we're here. _

Dipper couldn't articulate why he felt so strongly about trying to stay out of the way of this universes version of himself. Perhaps it was the way the patrons of the diner had acted around him last night – the nervousness on Lazy Susan's normally placid face, the whispers and strangled silence that had fallen around the other tables when he and Mabel had taken their seats. Glancing down once more at the poster had solidified the desire to avoid them in his mind. It was their eyes. He'd seen eyes like that before, years ago, and had hoped never to see eyes like that again. He was about to ball up the distressing image and toss it aside when something caught his eye that he hadn't noticed the night before in the dark when they had first snatched the paper off the wall. It was a shape in the decorative border of the flyer, all too familiar to Dipper, a stylized hand with six fingers done in gold. To anyone else it might have just looked like yet another occult symbol designed to get potential audience members minds racing with thoughts of the supernatural but Dipper felt a jolt of recognition when he thought back to the old Journal that he'd had years ago. A journal filled with secrets… magic… forbidden knowledge.

_A journal that _might _have something in it about how we could get home. Its a slim chance… but right now its the only one I can think of, short of combing the entire forest trying to find that exact patch of ground that lead us here in the first place, _Dipper thought with a growing sense of hope. Hope which quickly turned to apprehension when he realized that if these other Pines had the journal they might not be so inclined to give it up easily.

_This might get complicated, _Dipper thought to himself as he stared down at the image of the Other Dipper who seemed to be smirking at him challengingly from the flyer in his hands.

–

_Elsewhere_

Dipper woke gradually from a vivid dream, the details of which unfortunately slipped away before he could grasp them fully. The impressions that remained longest in his mind were of colors, vivid reds and golds that seemed to dance and flare brightly across his inner eyelids. _Fire_? He couldn't be sure, but it seemed more like a memory than a dream, an impression of himself out… camping?

_Odd._

He hadn't spent a night out in the wilderness (at least a night out doing anything as innocent as a simple camping trip) since his great uncle Stanford had taken him and Mabel out when they had first come to stay in Gravity Falls as children. Dipper smiled faintly to himself at the recollection – the old man had been a fool, but a kind and generous one and their time spent with him had been some of the happiest he'd had in his young life. It had pained Dipper that he had eventually become a liability when he had unwittingly discovered the siblings secret relationship and the truth of their magic. Dipper had hoped that it wouldn't have had to come to that, but in the end he was disposed of the same as any other potential obstacle. Dipper had made sure that it was painless though – Stanford had deserved at least that much consideration… he had been family after all.

_Look at me, wandering around down memory lane like an old man myself, _Dipper thought with a sad smile. He turned to the sight of Mabel as she lay snoring loudly beside him in his bed and felt the sadness drift away. _He would have separated us…. torn us apart. She was worth the sacrifice, _he thought to himself. _We had decided long before that night that all we needed was one another… and to hell with everyone else._

He rose up from the bed and stretched, wincing slightly at the feel of the fresh scratches that she had scored across his back the night before. He turned to Mabel once again and reached out to gingerly run his fingers up her bare arm and across her shoulder to the curve of her neck and was rewarded with the sight of the faint smile that touched the gentle bow of her lips. She could be quite the terror when she was awake, and he knew that he'd have to be on his guard once again as soon as she rose, but in the quiet hours of the morning he could still see those glimpses of her former childlike innocence in her sleeping form and he always took a delight in the sight. It was these reminders of her old nature that she kept buried under layers of artifice and exaggerated cruelty that touched him the deepest… kept him feeling stable in the strange blur that their life had become once they had surrendered themselves fully to the magic that was both their power, tool and addiction.

_Enough idling though, _he thought with an internal sigh, _there's still the business of these anomalies to unravel today. Who knows how long this situation will persist and if there are any gains to be made while they last then the sooner I get started the better._

He made his way down the winding spiral staircase and to the spacious kitchen to search for a suitable breakfast, privately lamenting their lack of servants once again. It's not that they hadn't _tried _to employ a few people to keep the house they had inherited from Stanford in order, but they usually either quit before too long after being exposed to the strange atmosphere of the manor or they disobeyed the twins strict rules and ended up learning more about their employers than they should have… and then they would 'mysteriously vanish' around the same time that Mabel's rose garden would coincidentally get a little wider and greener. After a few too many uncomfortable interviews with the police had forced them to abandon the thought of hiring someone to watch over the house the Pines twins had briefly made an experiment of enslaving the gnomes that used to infest the forest but Mabel's habit of flinging the small creatures around with telekinesis when she was bored had forced them to be uncharacteristically brave and stand up to their masters in an act of rebellion. It hadn't ended well for them.

Dipper finally settled on cereal rather than trying to make anything more elaborate and as he sat looking out of the large dining room windows at the sun rising over the forests surrounding the manor he considered the possibilities for how best to approach this new mystery. Several fairly reliable location spells came to mind, but he wasn't quite sure how to modify their focus from a person or object to a possible tear in reality itself… a few of the more powerful ones also required some rather rare ingredients that he was sure they didn't have on hand at the moment anyway. _I probably would have had a solution by now if Mabel hadn't interrupted my reading last night, _he thought as he finished off the last of his breakfast, _not that I really mind considering the nature of my distraction._

He would have to go check through the Journals once again to see if they might have held some secret related to this particular situation that he might not have noticed before. Some clue that would prove vital to unraveling the nature of the strange meteor shower and explain the origin of the phenomena. _It would probably be easier if I _had _the complete set, but unfortunately that is not yet the case. _He frowned to himself at that old annoyance. Mabel and Dipper had practically turned the town upside down in their search for the final journal over the past three years, but sadly all they had were the "3" book which Dipper had found in a secret spot their first summer here and the "1" journal that had been secreted away in a private study concealed behind a bookcase belonging to dear great uncle Stanford when they had made a thorough search of the house after his funeral. The "2" journal had not yet made an appearance, though he had a few private suspicions about people or places that might know of its whereabouts. He hadn't yet told Mabel of them though since she had a nasty habit of rushing off impulsively at the sign of a clue while he preferred to take a quieter approach – their reputation in town had suffered somewhat as a result of their intense search, but thankfully most people still either loved or feared them enough to not actively oppose them. Not for long anyway.

_The Gleeful boy will have to be dealt with soon though, _Dipper thought as he made his way to his study and toward the safe where he kept the journals tucked away when he wasn't using them. _It was fun at first, having him as an opponent – he was too incompetent to really prove much of a threat to us and watching him get dejected and hopeless after his constant losses was good for a laugh, but he's started to make a pest of himself. I _know _he was working with that reporter that Mabel took care of last night and if he still has any of the mans research or incriminating data available he could make life difficult for us. That airhead blonde girlfriend of his may also have to go since she probably wouldn't just stand by at let us dispose of her fat little friend without some sort of retaliation. _Dipper winced internally at the thought of what Mabel might do if he gave her free reign to finally rid herself of Pacifica, who she harbored a particularly strong hatred of for some inscrutable girl reason. _Perhaps I should be the one to handle that job? She's a pest, but even she probably doesn't deserve whatever Mabel would have in mind for her… I'd at least make it clean. A stroke perhaps? No… that might raise a few eyebrows in a girl that young. Maybe drowning in the lake? It's had its fair share of unsolved tragedies over the past few years, whats one more in the grand scheme of things…_

He spends an hour or so flipping through the dogeared pages of the leather bound journals, grabbing a pen up from his desk and clicking it reflexively out of habit as he scans the spidery script for some sort of useful clue. A plan forms up in his mind, slowly at first but coming together quickly as he manages to assemble something coherent out of the mess of strange ciphers and odd drawings splattered across the pages. _Something like a modified dowsing rod… fine tuned to detect ripples in space-time… sort of like the reverse of a summoning spell? Hmmm… how to put it all together though? _Dipper chewed the pen thoughtfully in his teeth before making a few notes in one of the many scribble-filled legal pads scattered across the old mahogany desk – mathematical symbols blurring together with alchemical formula as he tried to make sense of the inspiration that was currently sparking through his brain. A slight miscalculation could prove disastrous, and unfortunately the Gleeful brat had destroyed their great uncles unusual copy machine a few years ago so he had run out of safe ways to test the effects of new spells without an endless stream of willing clone partners at his disposal. True, Dipper had burned down Gideons house as payback but it hadn't felt like a fair trade. Anyone could build a house, but that machine was a work of _art, _and he still hadn't figured out how to repair it. _I really was _far _too lenient with him when I was younger. Mabel was right, I need to get tougher about this stuff. _All at once the mess of idle formula that he has been scribbling out begin to make sense in his head and he bends to his work with intense concentration, all other thoughts banished from his mind. Magic was just like any other science when you got right down to it, though Mabel had insisted to his annoyance that it was more like an art, and Dipper had found his orderly mind took to it as naturally as a duck to water. By the time he felt the bolo-tie shaped talisman around his neck begin to pulse with an eerie warmth that told him that Mabel had awoken and donned her own headband amulet he had already worked out the necessary calculations to construct the device that he was sure would guide them to the source of the rumors of anomalies that had been floating around town. _Simple and elegant, _Dipper thought with approval as he looked over the formula once more, _give it a few hours to get Mabel fully woken up and we should be ready to find the source of these disturbances before nightfall. _

–

"Look at me… I mean him… Is he actually wearing a cape? Who does that? Seriously, who wakes up in the morning, looks at their closet and decides 'Yes, this is a fine day to look like a giant tool.'" Dipper whispered to Mabel from their hiding place in the bushes behind the manor, peering in at his Other self through the wide windows.

"Well, it looks like you would if you were evil… no matter what universe you're in I guess you're just a big ole nerd." Mabel teased as she stifled a laugh at her brothers joke.

"Thanks for that," Dipper said flatly, "anyway I didn't say that they were _evil _per se… just that they don't look totally trustworthy. Probably better to keep out of their way to be on the safe side."

"Dipper, look at them – they are pretty much doing everything but hanging up a neon sign over the house with 'Free Puppy Sandwiches for the 100th Customer' and bathing in unicorn blood." Mabel replied.

"Well it looks to me like they are just packing sack lunches." Dipper joked.

"_Sinister _sack lunches." Mabel said darkly.

"Look, just because we're in another dimension or whatever that doesn't mean that these guys are automatically evil. Its not like we're in an episode of _Star Trek_." Dipper replied.

"I was thinking more like _Coraline, _but its the same basic idea. Jumping right to _Star Trek, _though, does not help your defense in the 'I am not a big nerd' case." Mabel joked.

"Ugh… are those cowboy boots on his feet? What is he thinking? Get it together other me!" Dipper groaned, pointedly ignoring his sisters needling.

"Hey, at least your evil clone doesn't dress like a slutty magician." Mabel groused as she looked over to her own doppleganger once again with a disgruntled expression.

"Its not _that _bad." Dipper said, trying hard not to eye the curves of the strange other Mabel's legs in her distractingly short skirt and lacy tights.

"Are you kidding? That getup is super revealing, its embarrassing!" Mabel said.

"Uh… yeah, its just… so awful." Dipper mumbled as he glanced away quickly from the other Mabel.

"Awful? Are you saying I can't pull off that outfit?" Mabel said, changing her tone entirely as as she turned to Dipper and prodded him in the ribs with an admonishing finger.

_This is a trap isn't it? _Dipper thought to himself, _there isn't an answer here that _won't _get me in some kind of trouble. Its almost like we're dating already, only without the fun parts. Gah! No… bad Dipper. There is no _already _in the equation – we will NEVER be dating. Get it through your thick head._

"Ummm…" Dipper hummed out, stalling for time before he saw a goofy grin split Mabel's face as she gave him a playful shove.

"I'm just messing with you – c'mon, what kind of sister asks their brother how hot they would look in an outfit?" she said with a laugh.

"Hah… yeah. That would be pretty twisted wouldn't it?" Dipper said quietly. _Get a hold of yourself man. Now is not the time for this stuff. I'll deal with my messed up personal problems when I'm back in the _real _Gravity Falls._

It was almost reassuring in a way that they had fallen into their old pattern of sibling bickering. Apparently even being stranded in a bizarre parallel earth wasn't enough to keep Mabel down for long and her infectious mood had gotten Dipper to feel somewhat more cheered up as well. _Or maybe she's just better at hiding it, _Dipper thought.

"How much longer do you think we'll have to wait here anyway?" Mabel asked as she settled back in beside him and turned her focus toward the manor once again, drawing the last of the odd gummy candies that she had bought last night out from her pocket and popping it into her mouth.

"As long as it takes," Dipper said unsure of how to really answer the question.

After Mabel had awoken earlier that day Dipper had told her of his theory that these Other Pines (as he'd taken to calling them after Mabel had first made the _Coraline _comparison last night) possibly had this universes versions of the Journal from back home. They'd talked it over for a while and after they had both decided against just walking up to their house and asking to see it (Dipper had been highly opposed to the idea), they felt that the next best thing would be to just stake out the manor till its occupants were gone and then break in and search the place till they found it. It really wasn't much of a plan as these things went, but as Mabel had a put it: a plan this simple was pretty much impossible to screw up. Dipper had been forced to agree after he'd recalled his own habit of making overly complex strategies that tended to fall apart about 15 steps in, and so they had set out from their camp and through the woods toward the manor with breaking and entering on their minds. Dipper reached up to his neck and felt the familiar weight of the old black iron key that the insane former President Trembley had gifted him with years ago and hoped silently that it would still work on the locks of this other world. He wasn't really sure how they were going to get in if it didn't - Mabel once claimed that Stan had shown her how to pick police handcuffs one afternoon when he was bored, but Dipper wasn't really sure how useful that skill could be on a regular door lock and he wanted to avoid anything as overt as throwing a brick through the window if he could help it. Nothing that would leave any obvious clues, in case this alternate Dipper also had an interest in mysteries and decided to try and track them down.

As luck would have it the twins didn't have to wait much longer before they saw the Other twins exiting the house and heading toward a black sedan parked out by the front of the manor and driving off, but not before making two trips to bring some large bags with them.

_What are those two up to? _Dipper had wondered to himself as he watched the Other Dipper staggering under the weight of a heavily weighted sack balanced precariously on his shoulders. _Maybe they are taking a trip? That would be a pretty handy coincidence at least – and we need some good luck right about now._

They waited a few minutes until the car was long out of sight down the road before slowly sneaking up to the door. To Dippers great relief the Presidents Key slipped easily into the lock and turned without any effort and they were inside in no time, though Mabel had still insisted that she probably could have picked it if they needed to. They found themselves in a spacious room that branched out into various hallways, a large winding staircase off against one wall and beautifully polished hardwood floors under their feet. Various ornately framed paintings and posters lined the walls, offset by strange sculptures and other curios. There were some things here that seemed like they wouldn't have looked out of place in the Mystery Shack, but overall the impression seemed to be one of wealth rather than Grunkle Stans trademark cheapness.

"Geez… look at the size of this place," Mabel said with a whistle, "it makes the Shack back home look like… well, a shack."

"Yeah, I guess these guys are doing okay for themselves." Dipper replied, his eyes taking in the sight of the room slowly, with slightly growing unease. _Is that a preserved gnome in a jar on that shelf? _

"Alright, now that we're in whats the plan?" Mabel asked. "Do we split up? We could cover more ground that way, this place looks like its going to take a while to search."

"Yeah, but I still think we should stick together in case anything unexpected happens and we need to make a break for it. I'd rather not lose track of you." Dipper said.

"Awww… you really do care." Mabel teased as she gave him a playful poke. "Not that there was ever a doubt about that though." she added in a warmer tone as she reached out to give him a quick one-armed hug.

"Yes, yes – I'm a great brother," Dipper said quickly as he returned the hug. "Now, where do you think we should check first?"

"The kitchen." Mabel said quickly, shortly before her stomach let out a loud rumble as if on cue.

"Really? We break into a strange house and the first thing you think we should do is steal their food instead of what we actually came here to get?"

"Yes! You can't live on candy and stale trail mix forever."

"If we find the journal we won't have to." Dipper argued back.

"Yeah, hopefully not – but c'mon, I think I'd be a lot better at searching with some decent food in me. One quick sandwich and then we can get right to work – what do you say?" Mabel asked pleadingly, turning the full intensity of her puppy-dog stare on him.

Dipper held out as long as he could, about 20 seconds, but relented as he always did in the face of his sisters goofily cute pout and the pair set out trying to find the hall that would lead them to the dining room they had spotted earlier through the windows from the bushes outside. It only took a few false turns before they reached the kitchen and Mabel practically sprinted toward the refrigerator as if it were her lost love coming home from the war. Dipper could only hang back for so long until his own hunger had him there right beside her, with the pair grabbing anything that looked even vaguely good and tossing it onto the counter.

"I still can't get over the weird brands here," Mabel said as she piled various meats and cheeses high onto a slab of wheat bread until the resulting sandwich was so thick that she could barely get her hands around it. She had also heaped practically an entire box of chocolate chip cookies on her plate and was grabbing handfuls of them between painfully large bites of her hastily assembled monstrosity.

"Really?" Dipper asked with his mouth half full of his own slightly more conservative lunch, "We're stuck in another dimension, currently in the house of some incredibly rich and tasteless version of ourselves and stealing their food, and the thing that weirds you out is the fact that those cookies you're scarfing down say Nabisco instead of Nyums on the package?"

"Well that other stuff is weird too, yeah," Mabel conceded, "but its not like we haven't run into weird stuff before. We've traveled in time, we ran into dinosaurs when we _weren't_ traveling in time and I once got high off my mind on illegal German candy in a haunted convenience store – its not like weird is… you know, _weird _for us… but its the little things that freak me out. The small changes just stick out a lot more to me compared to the big stuff, know what I mean?"

"I guess so, yeah." Dipper said. "I'm still just trying to wrap my head around the big things though… I mean, parallel universes? That's some pretty heavy stuff. How many of them are there? Are they infinite? Is it one of those deals where every choice creates a whole new reality? This is crazy interesting!"

"Well you can be interested in it at the Shack back home after we find the book," Mabel said after she finished swallowing the last bite of her sandwich, "because I want out of this place. We need to get back to where we _belong, _its crazy feeling like an outsider somewhere that looks like your own town."

The thought brought Dipper out of his excitement about the implications of the weird science-fiction-y mess they found themselves in and back to the matter at hand. He finished off his own sandwich and the pair headed back toward the entrance, deciding along the way to start on the second floor and search it first before working their way down to the more easily escapable first floor. They eventually found the rooms for their alternate selves and against Dippers first instinct they chose to split up and each search their doubles room – Mabel had made a pretty good argument that if they were alike in any way that they probably knew where their Other self would have hid something important.

Searching the room was… unsettling. For every strange thing that he found that confused him (such as the trunk of lovingly cared for stage magician props, or the drawer full of ornate belt buckles) he spotted things that wouldn't have looked out of place in his own room. Familiar books, a DVD of a favorite sci-fi movie, even a dogeared old copy of a Sibling Brothers mystery novel with a number of post it notes stuck between the pages. Dipper cracked open the book and was surprised to see that the handwriting scrawled across the colorful sticker notes was almost exactly a match for his own… though he noticed that the penmanship was just slightly tighter and more elegant than he usually used when just writing to himself. _This just feels so… weird. Its like looking at someone naked… but also like I'm being exposed at the same time… does that even make sense? _Dipper was in the middle of ransacking the closet of his alternate-universe self, frowning to himself at the selection of odd western-wear shirts and the occasional stage magician style cape that lined the racks, when he heard a soft sound that made his heart catch in his throat. _I think that was the sound of someone opening the door._

His pulse raced hard in his veins as he snuck quietly back out to the hallway and found Mabel in the other room standing in front of a full length mirror and holding up what looked to be a very expensive dress against herself with a calculating look. Dipper tapped her on the shoulder and then hastily clamped his hand tight over her mouth to muffle the guilty "I wasn't going to steal it!" that had burst out. He gave her a significant look and jerked his head downward, and the two strained their ears together.

Footsteps. Muffled talking, too quiet to make out any words. Someone _was _here.

Dipper stalked over to the bedroom window and looked out, only to find to his surprise that the black sedan that the Other Pines had left the house in earlier was nowhere to be seen.

"Mabel," he hissed, "I don't think thats _them _down there."

"Well then who else can it be?" she hissed back in return, a note of panic in her voice.

"I don't know – it could be anyone. Maybe this universes Soos or Wendy or something?" Dipper replied.

"Maybe." she replied. "What if its someone breaking in though?"

"What, you mean that we ended up breaking in the same day that someone else decided to burgle the place?" Dipper asked skeptically.

"How dare they!" Mabel whispered fiercely. "We ought to call the cops on them!"

"What? Mabel, _we're _also breaking in here."

"Yeah, but its kind of like our house too so its not as bad." she muttered.

"No, legally speaking its just as bad." Dipper hissed.

"Are there even laws about what to do with parallel universe criminals? Like, are we technically citizens since we weren't born here?" Mabel wondered aloud.

"Are we doing this now? Is this _really_ the time for this conversation?" Dipper asked wearily.

They both froze. The noises from downstairs had stopped.

"Crap, I think they heard us!" Mabel hissed so close in Dippers ear that he felt a not-unpleasant chill run up his spine from the unfamiliar sensation.

"Yeah, sounds like they did." Dipper said when his ears caught the sound of careful footsteps

"What do we do?" she asked as she grabbed her brother by the shoulders and shook him frantically, rattling his already stunned head even further.

"Ok… um… we could just pretend to be them…. I mean, us. The other us. We look the same, maybe they'll buy it?" Dipper said.

"How would that help?" Mabel asked.

"Well, if its someone who knows us… them… then we can try and talk our way out of the house and make a getaway… and if its thieves then they might get scared off and run when they see the houses owners are here." Dipper reasoned.

"Good enough for me." Mabel agreed, and the two stood up and slowly made their way to the hallway as the sounds of voices drifted up the stairwell from down below.

They made their way slowly down the winding staircase, the voices growing louder but still indistinct. There was something oddly familiar about the tone though, but try as he might Dipper couldn't place the speakers. _Who is that? _

As they reached the foot of the stairs they heard the sound of footsteps coming up from one of the hallways and Dipper gritted his teeth and braced himself for whatever weird conversation was going to come. _Okay, just gotta be clever – its like Mabel said, this isn't nearly the weirdest thing the two of us have ever done… I wish I didn't suck at acting though._

A pair rounded the corner of one of the hallways and stopped dead at the sight of Mabel and Dipper standing awkwardly at the foot of the stairs. A boy and a girl, around their own ages. The girl was dressed in a strange hodgepodge of 90's fashion styles and Dipper was surprised to see that the guy was in clothes almost exactly like his own- right down to the colors of their jackets and caps. Both were blonde, though the heavyset young mans hair was a much lighter shade that was almost white, and Dipper was startled to see that the blue eyes that were glaring at him were very familiar… almost like….

"Gideon!" Dipper gasped in sudden recognition.

"Pines!" Gideon growled out as his eyes narrowed in anger.

"Pacifica?" Mabel said in confusion at the sight of her old rival.

"Mabel!" Pacifica squeaked out and ducked slightly behind Gideon with her wide eyes fixed on Mabel in fear.

For a brief moment there was complete silence as the four stared at one another in growing confusion.

"What are you doing here?" they all asked simultaneously, which lead to another beat of silence.

"We live here… Idiot?" Dipper replied, unsure about the 'idiot' part. _What if Gideon and I are friends in this universe? No… some things are just impossible no matter what universe I'm in._

"Well… your car was gone…" Pacifica said hesitantly.

"So that gives you knuckleheads permission to break into our house?" Mabel said, rallied by the sight of Pacifica being so unnerved. It was definitely not something she saw often enough in her own world, and she felt a small shameful jolt of happiness at seeing Pacifica cower behind Gideon again at the sound of her voice.

"What gave you permission to go after us?" Gideon said firmly, taking a step toward them.

"Hey, lets not do anything rash here… Look, how about you just leave now and we won't call the police on you." Dipper said calmly, his hands raised in a soothing gesture. It seemed to have the opposite effect though, because as soon as his arms came up Gideon stepped in front of Pacifica with his own arms raised protectively.

"Oh no… we're through running boy!" Gideon snarled, "This is a showdown… we know what you two monsters did to Tobey and we aren't going to let you get away with it!"

"Who?" Dipper asked, genuinely confused.

This was apparently the exact wrong thing to say because at that moment Gideon snapped and charged at Dipper with a furious shout. Dipper quickly took hold of Mabel's hand tight in his own and pulled her up after him back up the stairs.

"So much for that plan genius!" Mabel shouted as they pounded up the steps, the sound of Gideons short puffing breaths growing fainter as he fell behind.

"Sorry, it was the best I could come up with on short notice," Dipper said tersely once they had reached the top floor landing and were hunting around for a place to go next. Gideon could still be heard somewhat behind them, though his footsteps were coming slower. _This is why I like more elaborate plans! I probably would have had a contingency for "Get cornered by the parallel universe version of my childhood arch-enemy in a strange house" if I'd just had enough time to work it out. Thank god he apparently still has such a huge sweet tooth in this world too or else he might have caught up to us already._

Having no better plan Dipper dragged Mabel after him to the Other Dippers room and locked the door tightly, searching for something to help barricade the place shut. While he was distractedly wedging an ornate desk chair awkwardly against the doorknob Mabel grabbed tightly to his arm and pointed silently out the window. Dipper turned and with a sinking feeling in his gut he saw a familiar looking black sedan heading up the road and toward the manors driveway.

_Oh this is _definitely _not going how I imagined it earlier._

–

"I still don't see why we had to come all the way back home to get your phone, its not like you even get good reception out in the woods." Dipper grumbled as he pulled the car into the parking lot of the manor.

"Well its got games on it at least – I don't want to be stuck bored with nothing to do for hours in the middle of nowhere while you fiddle around with your spells and charms. I know how much you hate it when I have to find ways to entertain myself." Mabel replied.

"Thats because its getting harder and harder to cover up the results of your entertainment, sister. Blubbs and Durland may not be the brightest police in the history of criminology, but I think even they are starting to get a bit suspicious." Dipper replied.

"All the more reason for us to come back then, it saves us less work later on." Mabel said smugly, and Dipper cursed internally at the way she'd manipulated him into agreeing with her.

The pair continued to amicably bicker back and forth as they wandered up the walkway to the front door when Mabel suddenly clamped her hand tightly onto her brothers shoulder and pointed at the door which he now saw was slightly ajar. The pair turned to one another with hard eyes and nodded once before they stalked nearly silently toward the doorway, their brown eyes taking on a strange teal shine as they drew on the power of the amulets.

"They're upstairs," Dipper whispered after a long moment of concentration. "I think there are three of them… or four? I can't tell for some reason… Their minds feel… slippery?"

"What does that even mean?" Mabel hissed at him in confusion, and he could feel the air around her crackle with power.

"Well if you'd paid more attention to the psychic side of things and not just the pyrotechnics you might have an idea of what I was referring to." Dipper snapped.

"How about this: we each take one of them, you can try and guess the number yours is thinking of and I'll set mine on fire – we'll see which of the two comes back to bother us later." Mabel snapped back, the teal shine over her eyes flaring briefly with her annoyance.

"Enough – we're wasting time out here. Lets go see what our uninvited house guests are up to." Dipper said firmly, and Mabel's mouth settled into a thin line as she nodded once in agreement.

They made their way into the house and could hear the sound of thumping footsteps and confused shouting going on upstairs. There was a crash like glass shattering and a scream and the confused Pines twins turned to one another.

"These have to be the most disorganized thieves in the history of burglary." Dipper said quietly with a shake of his head, and Mabel gave him a brief tight smile.

"Lets go take care of them before they mess the place up anymore- I don't want to spend my free time picking glass out of the carpet." Mabel said.

"If the damage is that bad I could see about controlling their minds and you could make them clean it up. You could even make them eat it if you wanted." Dipper replied.

"Oh brother dear, you always know just what to say." Mabel said with a toothy smile.

"I'll head up first – if any come down the stairs you take care of them, alright?" Dipper asked and when Mabel nodded in agreement he began his slow ascent of the staircase.

–

The fight had dragged across the second floor with Dipper and Mabel ducking into unfamiliar rooms while the Other Gideon and Pacifica followed in hot pursuit, and while they had managed to end up causing quite a bit of damage to the house itself the pair had been fortunate enough to not get injured so far.

The chase had now lead them back to the stairway where it had all started and an ill timed lunge from Gideon had thrown Dipper off balance and sent the two of them tumbling down the winding staircase together with Mabel and Pacifica following close behind them, shouting their concerns. Halfway through their ungraceful trip down the staircase Dipper heard a surprised shout that sounded _eerily _familiar and then felt another body join in the tangle of limbs that he was currently trapped in. They arrived at the foot of the stairs in a crash and when Dipper blearily rose to his feet on unsteady legs he felt his heart catch in his throat when he recognized his Other self lying groaning on the floor with that ridiculous cloak tangled around his body. He turned and saw the Other Mabel standing just a few feet away and looking at him with an expression of complete surprise on her face, which only increased when she turned her head and saw Mabel running down the stairs to rush to Dippers side to see if he was alright.

There was a moment of complete confusion with Gideon and Pacifica looking back and forth between the two sets of Pines while the Other Dipper and Mabel got to their feet and stared in bewilderment at their doubles. Dipper, injured as he was by the fall, had a clear enough head to take advantage of the situation and took Mabel's hand tight into his own and pulled them through the open front door in a dash toward the woods. They hadn't gone very far before Dipper caught the sound of footsteps following behind in pursuit and he tried to get up some extra speed to lose them, already panting from the exhaustion of the earlier chase.

–

"What the _hell _was that? Were they escaped copy-machine clones? I thought that we'd already gotten rid of all of those." Mabel asked in surprise as she helped her brother to his feet while he cursed quietly to himself as he sought to untangle himself from that cape that he'd taken to wearing lately.

"I'm not sure," he groaned as he rubbed his bruised head, "but whatever they are, they're getting away… as well as our other uninvited guests."

"Well we can't have that can we," Mabel said with a frown and Dipper felt the air around her grow thick and hot, rippling with the energy coming off her. "Are you well enough to assist me here, or are you going to sit there like a lump and make me handle all of them myself?"

Dipper shook himself once and turned a smirk toward her, "It takes more than a little fall to keep a Pines down." _Though not much more… I think I'm half bruises at this point._

Mabel gave him a smile, "Thats my manly man right there," she said as she gave him an infuriatingly condescending pat on the cheek, "Lets go take care of business then. Dibs on Pacifica!"

They raced into the woods and Dipper felt his amulets own powers flowing deeper through his mind with each step. Vision felt heightened – almost like he was aware of new colors that he had never known existed before. Details that he would have paid no attention to before began to leap out at him, as if the very world was screaming its secrets at the top of its lungs. The rush of it, the power… as always he felt that it threatened to overwhelm him, but he mastered it… muted the chaotic blare of sound and color and the sheer weight of all of this _information_, taking it apart piece by piece in his mind. There, to the left… snapped twigs, scatters of leaves – a single long blonde hair snagged in a low hanging branch, invisible to the naked eye but practically highlighted in neon to his expanded consciousness. _A trail_.

He pointed down the path silently, his mind too occupied with the agonizing effort of handling all of this new sensory input to be able to form words and Mabel tore down it in a run, her steps coming faster and her feet rising higher off the ground in a series of gravity defying leaps. She was floating before long, outlined in a nimbus of strange turquoise light with her arms held out gracefully at her sides as if she were the lead actress in a performance of Peter Pan. Dipper watched her go with a small pang of envy… he'd never mastered the level of physical control that she had over her own amulet… that sort of magic had come naturally to her. He could barely manage to make himself float after years of practice, yet she had been gliding along through the air after only a few months of receiving her headband. It was something to do with her nature he was sure… her energy, her boundless confidence.

_I have other talents to make up for it though, _he told himself as he returned his focus to the task at hand. He shut his eyes tightly and _concentrated _hard, and braced himself for what was to come. Though his eyes remained shut he could feel the sense of sight start to course into his brain. He could see all around him, not with the limited focus of his eyes but from every angle around his body all at once and with perfect clarity. He could even see himself, which was incredibly dizzying, but he was able to navigate well enough due to the hours he'd spent practicing this particular charm. He saw himself grin as he took off through the woods following the subtle clues of his prey. _Try hiding from me now._

–

With each step Dipper felt the rising dizziness threaten to overwhelm him, increasing until he felt it strangling the thoughts in his skull like a thick painful cloud. T_hat fall must have messed me up worse than I thought. Don't know how much longer I can keep up… already feel like I want to hurl._

He shot a quick glance at Mabel running alongside him and noticed that her steps had slowed to match his own faltering gait. He was holding her back. Keeping her from getting away. _Can't let her get caught cause of me. Gotta protect her._

Only half-aware of his own actions Dipper tried to shake his hand free from Mabel's grip, but she only tightened her fingers on his in response and he saw her give a small shake of her head. _She knows. She's not going to leave me behind… but she has to. Can't let her get caught… _

He heard footsteps coming from behind now, faint but growing louder. Closing in. With an effort that nearly threatened to knock him off his already unsteady feet Dipper dug his heels into the rough carpet of leaves and jerked his arm free from his sisters grip, causing her to stumble forward. She turned to him but he spoke before she could open her own mouth.

"Go! You run – I'll hide in the bushes or something… we'll meet up at the campground tonight, okay!" he gasped out. _Ugh… I think I might have a concussion… how do you know if you have a concussion? _

"No way Dippingsauce, you're coming with me-" she started as she reached out her hand to take his again, but when she took a step toward him he gave her a hard shove and sent her stumbling back again.

"Can't run. Gonna barf if I have to run another step… Seriously, I'm going to be okay… just need to hide till I recover. You gotta run though…" he said.

"Why can't we both hide?" she asked, and he heard the catch in her voice. Saw the wetness in her eyes.

"You know why." he said flatly, "Get going."

The footsteps seemed clearer now. Louder. Closer. He saw Mabel turn her head back toward the path they came from, toward the sound. She took another step toward him but he took one back and shook his head.

"Love you Mabel." he said. _Feels good to say that. Feels a bit melodramatic too, but a guys allowed to make his big heroic sacrifice a little cheesy if he wants. _

"Love you too Dipper." she said softly.

"Then don't make me watch you get caught. Run!" he said_._

"No way." she said, resolve hardening her voice. "We're in this together."

"You know, I'm usually not one for drama's but I have to say this is a pretty good scene," Dipper said, but not _her _Dipper, Mabel realized with a start.

She saw him coming up the path now in an easy jog, a confident smile on his face. The Other Dipper.

"Not _great_ really, the dialogues a bit repetitive, but there's some real emotion here – and honestly that makes up for the quality of the writing." he continued as he came to a stop a few feet from the twins and gave them a quick once over. "What, not even a chuckle?" he asked, a look disappointment on his face.

"Do you practice your villainous douchebag routine in front of the mirror every day or does it just come naturally to you?" Dipper asked as he straightened himself up and took a careful step to place himself between Mabel and the intruder.

"Alright, I confess it was a bit over the top – but my sister and I are in showbiz… we tend to go overboard sometimes. For example, you look like you are pretty much dead on your feet so I wouldn't really need to do _this-" _he said before he suddenly reached up to his neck and grabbed onto his amulet and pointed a finger at Dipper, who suddenly gritted his teeth and let out a pained hiss before slumping to the floor like a puppet with its strings cut, "-to take you out of commission. Its so much more elegant than just hitting you in the head with a rock though, don't you agree?" he asked Mabel as he turned to her with a happy grin.

Mabel had grabbed up a fallen branch and charged at her brothers attacker, screaming incoherently but before she could take another step toward him he made a quick gesture with one arm and wrenched the branch out of her hand in a flash of blue sparks. A second casual wave of his arm jerked her legs out from under her and she landed flat on her back with the wind knocked out of her. He was coming closer to her now, and she felt her limbs grow heavy as he loomed over her with that strange blue glow outlining him faintly even in the mid-afternoon sun.

He raised his finger and pointed it toward her with that same smug grin on his face that he'd worn during the entire encounter but when he brought his other hand up to his neck to touch the amulet once again he felt a beat of hesitation come over him. Her face. It was Mabel's face. In fear. In pain. No different than _her _face. There weren't infinite universes, but the number of them was so vast that even to contemplate it would drive most people crazy – but no matter how huge the number of realities there was no world where a Dipper Pines, no matter how monstrous, would ever hurt a Mabel. His arm lowered a fraction and Mabel felt the power that had been weighing down her limbs flicker out.

Mabel's, on the other hand, almost universally tended to play rougher than their brothers – and this one was no exception. With a quick twist of her hips Mabel rammed her feet into the Other Dippers stomach and crotch, causing him to double up in pain and she quickly rose up and ripped the amulet off his neck, recognizing it at last as identical to the one worn by Gideon back in her world. With a quick punch to the head she sent the Other Dipper sprawling and then ran to her brothers side.

_Okay, hes still breathing, _she thought with relief. _Please be okay Dipper… I don't know what I'd do without you. I need you around you big melodramatic idiot… _

There were more footsteps coming now and Mabel tried desperately to grab Dipper up and drag him along but it was no use. He was larger and heavier than her and whatever magic that had been used to knock him out had left him as pure dead weight. She braced herself and stood over his comatose form.

_Alright bro… my turn to protect you._

Gideon and Pacifica burst out from the bushes nearby, panting and wild eyed with small streamers of smoke trailing off them.

"Alright, I think we lost her." Gideon gasped out, "She got too distracted setting all them fires so we should be in the clear."

"Mabel!" Pacifica shrieked at the sight of Mabel standing not a few feet from her. Mabel noticed that it looked like her eyebrows had been singed off.

"I think its not the same Mabel." Gideon panted as he took in the scene around them and noticed the unconscious pair of Dippers. "Actually, I think maybe this one might be on our side."

"I just want to be on the side of getting out of here!" Mabel said. "Can you guys help me get my brother up? We need to move fast before that Other one wakes up."

"How do we know this isn't a trick?" Pacifica asked suddenly, rounding on Mabel with a scowl on her face.

"We don't got enough time to argue _and _escape," Gideon said quickly. "The real Mabel's gonna be here any second and she is _not _gonna be happy when she sees what you did to her brother."

"Hey, I _am _the real Mabel. Its this one here thats the evil other universe twin or whatever." Mabel snapped.

"What, like on Star Trek?" Gideon asked in confusion.

"Can we talk about this later? I really want to get going before that crazy evil witch comes over and burns us all to death with her magic!" Pacifica snapped, her earlier objection forgotten as she patted out a small flare that had sprung up on the sleeve of her denim jacket.

Suddenly gripped by inspiration Mabel looked down at the amulet in her hand. She'd used one like it before, back in Gravity Falls when she was a kid on her first summer here. Maybe she'd be able to use it now. Gripping the strange gem tightly in her hand she pointed her arm toward her brother and concentrated and was rewarded with seeing a blue glow envelop him and saw him rise slowly off the ground.

"Holy moley, you got one of their magic jewel things! We've been trying to get one of those things off of them for years!" Gideon said, practically jumping up and down in excitement.

"Less talking more running," Mabel said tersely as she motioned Gideon to grab a hold of her hovering brothers left arm while she took a hold of the right, and between the two of them they were able to drag him through the air behind them like a cumbersome parade float.

Worried for her brother, still terrified of this strange world and feeling a strange rush from the eerie feeling of the magic coursing through her veins, Mabel Pines ran.


End file.
